IDEA project is the outcome of Association for the Improvement of Mental Health programme and coordinated at Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London.

Are to explore experience of people treated in a mental health setting across nations, determine how inpatient experiences can be improved. Experience gained from interviews will be used to propose questionnaire for routine use, develop versions of interview for other services, inform a possible follow-up study.

30 consecutive patients are interviewed on day of discharge in own language. Semi-structured interview covers physical condition in institutions, experiences of treatments like medication, satisfaction with staff, privacy, dignity and whether rights were respected. Responses are summarized on several visual analogue scales and quantitative analysis will be performed. The scale will also be analysed by demographic indices within centres to see whether different groups have different experiences.

Qualitative responses will be analysed thematically, both within and between centres, identifying core themes for each domain and core themes for the protocol as a whole.

10 countries are participating, 577 interviews are completed. It is noticed a large disparity between institutions in regards to the amount of contact patients have with family, access to phone, quality of food, surroundings and view of medication and therapy.

It will be a better understanding of the size, structure and staffing of the institutions included in the study, which will help us with our observations about inpatient experiences by putting them in context and make recommendations to institutions.

Twenty percent of children and adolescent population are suffering from psychiatric disorders, according to World Health Organization. Above that, clinical work and previous published reports point to increase of self-harm behaviour incidence and prevalence in many countries, including Croatia.

To compare defence mechanisms in adolescent patients with deliberate self-harm behaviour and without it.

To explore differences in adaptive and maladaptive defence mechanisms in adolescent patients with self-harm behaviour and without this behaviour; to gain better insight in possible perception and functioning patterns in these two patient subgroups. To assess the effect of possible differences on early diagnostic procedure and therapeutic plan.

Defence Style Questionnaire (DSQ) was administered to 150 patients aged between 14 and 18 years on their first visit to child and adolescent psychiatrist. Sevety-nine patients had history of self-harm behaviour and 81 patients had negative anamnestic data on such behaviour.

Comparison of defence mechanisms in these two patient subgroups showed a statistically relevant difference in using defence mechanisms.

Results of this study showed significant difference between patients with self-harm behaviour and without such behaviour regarding used defence mechanisms. Awareness of specific mental patterns in patients with self-harm behaviour provides better assessment of suicidal risk and optimal individual approach planning.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The incidence and prevalence of self-harm behaviour, with or without suicidal intent, is on the rise, both in other countries as well as in Croatia. Understanding the nature of patients who show self-harm behaviour can help us to better understand the components that contribute to their morbidity and mortality.

To expand the understanding of self-harm behaviour in adolescents as a contribution to the planning and implementation of preventive and curative programs.

To explore the psychopathological characteristics of adolescents with and without self-harm behaviour who seek psychiatric help for their mental health problems.

In this study participated 150 adolescents, aged 14–18 years, of which 52% showed some form of self-harm behaviour. During the initial examination of child and adolescent psychiatrist, participants completed self-reported questionnaires: functional assessment of self-mutilation (FASM, 1997) and the youth self report (YSR, 2001).

Statistically significant difference between groups of female adolescents with and without self-harm behaviour was observed in all of eight problem scales, while in male adolescents it was observed in five of them. This indicates considerably higher level of psychopathological features in the group of patients with self-harm behaviour.

It is necessary to intensify monitoring of adolescents who show self-harm behaviour because of the overall level of psychopathological symptoms and the comorbidity which significantly complicates the therapeutic process. It is particularly important to continuously assess the suicide risk.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.